After
the landmark decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8
yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued orders today declining to
review the remaining LGBT equality cases on its docket this term. Most
significantly, the Court dismissed Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s
petition to overturn the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit in Brewer v. Diaz, in which that court concluded
that Arizona violated the constitutional rights of LGBT Arizona state
employees when it passed a law stripping them of their domestic partner
benefits in 2009. Lambda Legal filed suit on behalf of ten state
employees and their families.
“Yesterday’s victories at the Supreme Court thrilled LGBT people across
the country, but it also reminded those living in many states of the
inequality they and their families continue to face,” said HRC President
Chad Griffin. “Today’s order brings Arizonans a step closer to
enjoying the equality that all Americans deserve and that we are all
committed to ensuring for everyone, everywhere. We congratulate Lambda
Legal and their courageous plaintiffs in their successful fight against
the callous discrimination of their elected officials.”
In light of its conclusion in Windsor v. United States that
Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, the Court
also dismissed petitions for review in four other challenges to that
law. In addition, the Court declined to accept early review of Sevcik v. Sandoval,
a challenge to the constitutionality of Nevada’s constitutional
amendment barring marriage for same-sex couples. That case, brought by
Lambda Legal on behalf of Nevada same-sex couples in 2012, suffered a
loss at the trial court level, but will now proceed to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for review and may be before the Supreme
Court again in the coming years.